The Word from Jerusalem

More than 67,000 Nigerians made decisions to dedicate their lives to Yeshua and many people experienced healing as a result of mission trips completed by the Isaiah 2 Initiative.

Ron Cantor, an active member of Tiferet Yeshua in Tel Aviv, took a team of young people from his congregation. The Isaiah 2 Initiative has completed two mission trips to Nigeria. To our knowledge, these are the first Israeli Messianic Jewish missionary trips. Ron describes the inception of this vision,

February 14th, 2009: I was in a hotel in Lagos, Nigeria, when the Lord spoke to my heart.

I had just been invited to organize a mass outreach campaign by local leaders from Adamawa State in eastern Nigeria, but I was struggling internally. Something wasn’t right!

As I prayed that morning I felt in my heart that I was not to return to Nigeria alone, but to bring Israeli young people with me so they too could fulfill their call to be a light to the nations and be deeply impacted in the process—returning to Israel on fire!

That was the beginning of our “Isaiah 2 Initiative.”

The young missionaries were touched by the simple way of living they observed throughout Nigeria.

The initiative draws its name from Isaiah 2:3b, “The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

The tribal King of the hosting city, a Muslim, graciously accepted these Jewish believers from Israel. Cantor states,

It is a tradition in Nigeria that when a visitor comes to a city, he or she is received by the mayor and the tribal king.

The king of Hong is a Muslim, and given the backdrop of Islamic violence against Christians in northern Nigeria, his words were even more powerful.

“You have come to Hong and have answered my prayers.”

A Muslim king was praying that we would bring the Gospel to his city? I didn’t argue with him!
Everywhere we went, we were literally treated like royalty by everybody! The joy on their faces, anticipating our coming to their village with the Gospel, was humbling.

A Nigerian spokesman said he and his fellow countrymen were particularly touched to be visited by people from “the country we have read about in the Bible.”

Among the reports of miraculous healing that resulted from the mission were those of vision being restored to a previously blind woman and hearing to a man who had been deaf. On one night of the campaign the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was proclaimed as the one and only God — whereby objects and articles connected to superstitions, idols and the occult were publicly burned.

Ron summarizes the trip this way.

By God’s grace we in Israel will continue to focus on preaching the good news of Yeshua to the nations. We believe that as the body of Believers in Israel embraces its role to be a light to the nations, it will release grace on Israelis to confess Yeshua.

Furthermore, there is no doubt that the young Israelis who come on these trips have life-changing encounters. Their boldness to share the good news here in Israel has been reinforced and their faith to believe for miracles strengthened.